PK (film)

PK
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rajkumar Hirani
Produced by	Vidhu Vinod Chopra Rajkumar Hirani
Written by	Abhijat Joshi Rajkumar Hirani
Starring	Aamir Khan Anushka Sharma Sushant Singh Rajput Boman Irani Saurabh Shukla Sanjay Dutt
Narrated by	Anushka Sharma
Music by	Songs: Shantanu Moitra Ajay-Atul Ankit Tiwari Background Score: Sanjay Wandrekar Atul Raninga
Cinematography	C. K. Muraleedharan
Edited by	Rajkumar Hirani
Production company	Vinod Chopra Films Rajkumar Hirani Films
Distributed by	UTV Motion Pictures
Release dates	19 December 2014 (2014-12-19)
Running time	152 minutes[1]
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹85 crore (US$13 million)[2]
Box office	est. ₹735 crore (US$110 million)[3]

PK is a 2014 Indian satirical science fiction comedy film.^[4][5][6] The film was directed by Rajkumar Hirani, produced by Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and written by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi.^[7] The film stars Aamir Khan in the title role with Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani, Saurabh Shukla, and Sanjay Dutt in supporting roles. It tells the story of an alien who comes to Earth on a research mission. He befriends a television journalist and questions religious dogmas and superstitions.

The film received positive reviews and emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film of all time,^[8][9] and ranks as the 70th highest-grossing film of 2014 worldwide.^[10] The film has been regarded as one of the best film's of 2014^[11]

PK was the first Indian film to gross INR 7 billion worldwide.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17]} It was also the first Indian film to gross US$100 million (Rs 630 crore) worldwide.^{[18][19][20][21]}

Plot

A humanoid alien (Aamir Khan) lands on Earth naked on a research mission in Rajasthan in India, but is stranded when the remote control of his spaceship is stolen, though he manages to get the thief's cassette recorder, a National Panasonic RQ-565D. On the same day in Bruges, Belgium, Jaggu (Anushka Sharma) meets Sarfaraz (Sushant Singh Rajput) and falls in love with him. Jaggu's father (Parikshit Sahni) objects to their relationship because Sarfaraz is a Pakistani Muslim, while Jaggu is a Hindu. He consults godman Tapasvi Maharaj (Saurabh Shukla) who predicts that Sarfaraz will betray Jaggu. Determined to prove them wrong, Jaggu proposes to Sarfaraz. She is heart-broken at the wedding chapel when she receives a letter calling off the marriage due to their cultural differences.

Jaggu returns to India and becomes a TV reporter. She meets the alien and is intrigued at seeing him distribute leaflets about "missing" Gods. She saves him when he attempts to take money from a collection box, earning his trust.

The alien tells her that he is a research scientist from his planet. The people of his planet know nothing about dress, god and verbal communication. They transceive ideas by holding both of their hands with the person whom they are communicating. The longer they hold hands, greater information like language, skills, behaviour can be passed. After he landed on Earth, he learned to fit in among humans by wearing clothes and using money stolen from couples having sex in "dancing cars". After being accidentally hit by a truck, he was befriended by bandmaster Bhairon Singh (Sanjay Dutt), who took him along with his troop. Initially unable to communicate, he attempted to learn human language by grabbing peoples' hands and absorbing their memories through touch, but people chased him away, believing him to be a pervert. Bhairon took him to a brothel, where the alien held a prostitute's (Reema Debnath) hand for six hours and thus learned the Bhojpuri language.

Bhairon had a conversation with the alien, and suggested that the thief may be in Delhi. The alien left for Delhi. Due to his strange behaviour, people assumed he was drunk and called him "PK" (pee-kay, Hindi for "drunk"); he adopted this name. People told him that only "God" could help him find his remote. PK sincerely practiced every Indian religion attempting to find "God", but to no avail. He later discovered that Tapasvi had his remote, but Tapasvi claimed was a gift from God and refused to return the remote. After hearing PK's story, Jaggu promises him that she will recover his remote so he can return home.

PK conjectures that Tapasvi and other godmen must be dialling a "wrong number" to communicate with God, and are therefore advising the public to engage in meaningless rituals. Jaggu encourages the public to expose fraudulent godmen, by sending their videos to her news channel. This "wrong number" campaign turns into a popular mass-movement, to the dismay of Tapasvi. Meanwhile, Bhairon finds the thief and contacts PK, informing him they will come to Delhi, but both die in a terrorist attack.

Tapasvi decides to confront PK on-air. During the debate, PK says that "God that created us all" is the only one people should believe in, and that the other "duplicate Gods" are created by man. Tapasvi claims he has a direct connection to God and refers to his prediction of Sarfaraz's betrayal as proof. PK realises that Sarfaraz did not write the letter. Jaggu contacts the Pakistan Embassy in Belgium where Sarfaraz worked part-time. The embassy tells her that Sarfaraz still loves her, and transfers the line to Sarfaraz. Jaggu and Sarfaraz reconnect, and Tapasvi is forced to return PK's remote.

Meanwhile, PK has fallen in love with Jaggu, but refrains from telling her because she loves Sarfaraz. Having filled multiple audio tapes with her voice alone, he takes two suitcases full of tapes and extra batteries when leaving for home. After his departure, Jaggu publishes a book about him.

One year later, PK returns to Earth on a new research mission on human nature along with several other aliens (including one played by Ranbir Kapoor).

Cast

Production

Development

After the success of 3 idiots director Rajkumar Hirani and writer Abhijat Joshi starting work for next project,^[27] they had written a story like, the central character had the ability to get into an other person’s mind and make him a better human being. They spent one year to write a story and it turned out to be pretty similar to Inception. After watching Inception they couldn't get up from the seats. Eventually, they decided to scrap the film, then Hirani and Joshi reworked on the script, changing the entire tone and angle.It actually took 5 years to make this film and 3 years to write it.^[28]

In 2011 Aamir & Anushka signs the film.^[29] Aamir's nephew Imran Khan and Ranbir Kapoor were considered for the role of Sarafaraz Yusuf but Sushant Singh Rajput finalised for this role before the release of his debut movie Kai Po Che.^[30] Earlier reports said that Rajkumar Hirani signs Arshad Warsi for the film. News has that Arshad will be playing important role in the film. In 2013 Arshad said in an interview "I couldn`t have worked out on dates. I wouldn`t refuse Raju for anything. In fact when he offered me the film, I did not even ask for the script, I was like I am ready to come on whenever you want. So that is the connection I share with Raju,".^[31] Before Sushant and Arshad were signed on, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi were said to be cast in the film.^[32][33] Junaid Khan, son of Aamir Khan worked as an assistant director in this film.^[34]

In the film Aamir Khan played nine different avatars and during the course of the film, the actor had to eat over 10000 paans. "In real life paan is not a habit, I have it once in a while but for this film I chew paan for every scene. I would at times eat about 100 paans in a day. We had a paanwala on the sets," said Aamir Khan in the report. Apparently, for every take, Aamir had to eat a fresh paan to fill his mouth, also before beginning the shoot Aamir would eat at least 10-15 paans to get the right color inside his mouth and on his lips.^[35]

Characters

• PK - PK as a character is in a blank slate. With no cultural or moral biases he questions human customs and hypocrisy without an agenda. PK is a very unusual character. He is very innocent. He’s a little strange looking, and a bit Chaplinesque. For the character of pk Aamir popped his ears out, he wore green lenses. The character doesn’t move his hands much when he is running or walking. This character doesn’t blink, and so Aamir didn’t blink in the film, he is a Bhojpuri speaking person; so Aamir learns Bhojpuri with the help of Bhojpuri language expert Shanti Bhushan. It took three or four months to learn the accent.

Rajkumar Hirani said in an interview, “When we write a script we usually visualise the Characters in the film. How they look, talk and walk. But PK is One such character which was very difficult to Visualise. We didn’t have a Reference point. PK was one such character, who didn’t have a reference point. A Character like him wasn’t there in any book, nor did we meet someone like him in real life. We only knew that we wanted the character to be innocent and child-like. Now the question was, who is that actor who could look like a Child. Someone who is perfect for the role of PK. The answer was obvious ‘Aamir Khan‘.^[36]

• Jagat Janini (Jaggu) - Rajkumar Hirani wanted Anushka to look completely different from what people had seen her before. He had a very clear vision of her — fun-loving yet mature, someone who lives life on her own terms. Anushka tried out a lot of wigs because the whole look of a person changes when you change the hairstyle. Finally, when She wore this particular one, everyone just felt that this was it. The look wasn’t a one-day thing… The costume designer's, makeup artists and the crew experimented over a few days because the look of Jagat Janini to get it right. Even the clothes Anushka wear have a very unique style. Anushka said in an interview “Raju Sir wanted me to look happy, chirpy and peppy in ‘PK’. Keeping his brief in mind, the team came up with this look,” she also reveals she was not required to cut her hair to get the look. “I have long hair, so hair stylists just wrapped my hair and tucked inside the wig”.^[37]
• Bhairon Singh - Maker's wanted somebody tall and sturdy for the role of Bhairon Singh and that's why Sanjay came in the picture. Vidhu Vinod Chopra reveals, “The character Bhairon Singh is shown to be PK’s good friend. The idea was that since PK is a tiny person, we wanted someone who in contract is very huge. Such that, when Bhairon hugs pk, it looks funny as the tiny man would go completely unnoticed in Bhairon’s arms.”^[38]

Title

In 2011, in its initial scripting stage, Rajkumar Hirani named the film 'Talli' then changed it to 'Ek Tha Talli' which he actually loved it but later on came to know that 'Ek Tha Tiger' was already in production which was released in 2012. So he dropped the idea and after many titles, he came up with a unique title which only had initials, 'P.K'. After starting the film. Raju Hirani felt PK was not a good enough title. He decided to change the title to "Talli". After a few weeks of shooting, Raju Hirani decided to go back to the original title.^[39]

Themes

Firstpost compared PK to Hirani and Khan's previous collaboration 3 Idiots (2009), as they both involve "A socially awkward and 'different' young man – who walks and talks in a strange, enthusiastic childlike manner – observes the system, questions it, asks you to look at the many ludicrous things that inform it, and eventually brings about a minor revolution."^[40]

Filming

According to Rajkumar Hirani, PK is a "satire on Hindu god and their godmen".^[41] The co-director Khan began looking for shooting locations in July 2012.^[42] Second unit filming was set to begin in late 2012,^[43] which was stalled after the rumoured departure of three department heads for the film and bad weather stalling initial shoots.^[44][45] Hirani denied rumours that the film would be delayed, stating that principal filming had always been intended to begin in mid-January 2013 in Delhi and Rajasthan to "capture the winter of Delhi".^[46][47] Shooting officially began on 1 February 2013,^[48] with the filming scheduled to occur over a 45-day period.^[49] A 26-day schedule of shooting of PK started in Delhi from 27 September 2013.^[50][51][52] When the shoot of the film was going on in Chandni Chowk area of Delhi, an FIR was lodged against makers of the film for allegedly hurting religious sentiments in October 2013.^[53] The objection was regarding a scene in the film where a man dressed as the Hindu deity, Lord Shiva pulls the rickshaw with two burqa clad women as passengers.^[54]

Marketing

In July 2014, the makers released a motion poster of the film, revealing the first look. The poster sparked a controversy as it featured Aamir Khan posing almost nude with only a radio cassette recorder covering his genitals.^[41][55] Although the Central Board of Film Certification had already cleared the film, a PIL was filed in the court by the All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front to ban its release saying it promoted nudity and vulgarity. The Supreme Court dismissed the plea and gave the film a green signal.^[56][57] A case was lodged against Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Hirani in Rajasthan.^[58]

The second motion poster released on 20 August 2014, the poster features Aamir in a red angrakha teamed up with white pyjama and a trumpet in his hand. Aamir said at the launch of second poster "There is a story in each and every image that we reveal. We will have a poster campaign and we will reveal eight to 10 posters till the time the film releases." ^[59]

The third motion poster released on 15 September 2014, this time maker's launch Sanjay Dutt as Bhairon Singh. In this poster Aamir Khan asks the viewers, “Why are you staring? Its not me. Its my friend – Bhairon Singh.” In last poster Aamir who is wearing a ‘bandwaala’ costume, while this time he is seen wearing an over sized police uniform.^[60]

The fourth motion poster featuring Anushka Sharma released on 16 October 2014. In the poster first Anushka dressed like Aamir holding a transistor and introducing herself as Jagat Janini after Anushka is seen wearing a plain T-Shirt, shorts, & white long dress.^[61]

The makers unlock a teaser trailer on 23 October 2014.^[62] The teaser achieved 3.4 million views on YouTube within 5 days,^[63] subsequently receiving 12 million views and has been regarded most viewed movie trailers on YouTube.^[64] The film's teaser was also attached with the film Happy New Year.^[65] The makers also released the videos of behind the scenes like making of the movie, characters, songs, PK funnies, PK ki bhasha, dialogue promos & battery recharge dance of Aamir and Anushka on YouTube. ^[66]

In August the makers find a new promotional strategy to interact with the audiences by introducing talking standees. This is the first time in Bollywood film will be making of a talking standee at varied locations as a part of the film's promotions. The said standee will have Aamir Khan talking to people which will find a prominent place in popular theatres and multiplexes at various cities.^[67]

In 7 December 2014, Aamir Khan begun the city tour for promotions with Patna. The character he plays in the film speaks in Bhojpuri which is the main language used for communication in Bihar. Aamir said at the event “I have decided to launch the promotional campaign of my film ‘PK’ from Bihar to connect with the language. My character speaks Bhojpuri in the film.” Hence the actor decided to start his promotional shceudle from Bihar. Although he also wanted to visit Bhojpur, which is 60 kilometres away from bihar, he could not because of security issues. In Bihar he visited the litti chokha stall to try the authentic flavor of the city.^[68] The litti chokha stall owner has renamed his stall on Aamir’s name when he visited him last year and Aamir couldn’t leave the city without visiting the stall again. Then the crew proceeded to Varanasi where they had a screening of their film 3 Idiots and they interacted with the people on a one on one basis. Aamir Khan made an impromptu visit to Krishana Paan shop for savour a Banarasi pan. The actor specially removed time from, his schedule to visit this place. He enjoyed a mitha banarasi pan there. After the crew visiting Delhi, Ahemdabad, Raipur, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Indore, Bangalore & various locations in India.^[69] Aamir and makers also promoted the film in Dubai.^[70]

PK - The Game

Indiagames, a part of Disney India’s Interactive business, announced the launch of the official mobile game ‘PK’ based on the film. On 14 December 2014, Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Managing Director of Disney India and Sameer Ganapathy, VP and Head, Interactive of Disney India launched the game at the Reliance Digital Store in Juhu amidst much fanfare. ^[71] The game developed for both feature phones and smartphones, the game was launched on Google Play, iOS App store and Windows platform. In the game, the player gets to don many avatars of Aamir Khan as seen in the movie, along with a special avatar of Anushka Sharma, as he embarks upon an exciting endless running adventure. Set against an Indian background, the gamer will run amidst the by-lanes of Delhi, railway tracks in a desert (as seen in the movie), and collect a maximum number of paans, as PK is seen enjoying eating paan in the movie. The gamer has to avoid a number of obstacles on the way, which include cows, buses, Delhi trains, rickshaws, traffic jams and more. The various backdrops used in the game will give the player the feel of the actual movie.^[72]

Release

The film was earlier scheduled to release on June 6, 2014.^[73] The director who is also editor of the film, Rajkumar Hirani, wanted to spend more time on the editing. Besides, some portions with Sanjay Dutt were yet to be shot. Also, the second season of Satyamev Jayate was to kick off from March. So Aamir was not sure if he would be able to promote PK in June. Hence the makers of his film settled for a December release.^[74][75]

Finally the film was released on 19 December 2014, as the 200th Bollywood release in 2014.^[76][77] The film's release was later expanded to 6000 screens worldwide, which included 5200 screens in India^[78] and 844 screens overseas.^[79] PK was initially released in 4844 screens worldwide.^{[80][81][82][83]} PK has been made tax-free in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.^[84][85][86] PK is the widest Indian movie released in the U.K. (198 screens), Pakistan (over 70 screens), Australia (35 screens) and outside of India (844 screens in over 40 overseas markets).^[87] PK was released theatrically in China on 22 May 2015 across 4,600 screens^[88]

Distribution

Koimoi reported rumors of a satellite deal in which the satellite rights were sold for ₹850 million (US$13 million) if the domestic business reached ₹ 3 billion nett.^[89][90] The music rights were sold for ₹150 million (US$2.2 million).^[91] DNA reported, "Being the first film to use Rentrak, Aamir Khan has taken the first initiative to bring in a paradigm shift from the usual norms followed in Bollywood. He had clearly enforced the idea of Rentrak to be brought in to bring more accuracy when it comes to box office figures."^[92]

Soundtrack

PK
Soundtrack album by Shantanu Moitra Ajay-Atul Ankit Tiwari
Released	17 November 2014 (2014-11-17)
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	30:17
Language	Hindi
Label	T-Series
Shantanu Moitra chronology
Mardaani (2014) PK (2014) Wazir (2016) Ajay-Atul chronology Lai Bhaari (2014) PK (2014) Brothers (2015 film) (2015) Ankit Tiwari chronology Singham Returns (2014) PK (2014) Alone (2015) Singles from PK "Tharki Chokro" Released: 8 November 2014[93] "Love Is a Waste of Time" Released: 14 November 2014[94]

The film's soundtrack is composed by Shantanu Moitra, Ajay-Atul and Ankit Tiwari with lyrics written by Swanand Kirkire, Amitabh Varma and Manoj Muntashir. The full soundtrack was released on 17 November 2014.

The song "Tharki Chokro" is the first single, released on 8 November 2014. The video focuses on Aamir Khan and Sanjay Dutt,^[95] with the song sung by Swaroop Khan and composed by Ajay-Atul with lyrics penned by Swanand Kirkire.^[96]

The second single, "Love Is a Waste of Time" featuring Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma, was released on 13 November 2014 on YouTube.^[97] The song is sung by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal, composed by Shantanu Moitra with the lyrics of Amitabh Varma.^[98] "Chaar Kadam" was released on 22 November 2014 on the T-Series YouTube.^[99] The song is sung by Shaan and Shreya Ghoshal, composed by Shantanu Moitra with lyrics by Swanand Kirkire.

Track listing

PK (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)[100]
No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Tharki Chokro"	Swanand Kirkire	Ajay-Atul	Swaroop Khan	4:55
2.	"Love Is a Waste of Time"	Amitabh Varma	Shantanu Moitra	Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal	4:30
3.	"Nanga Punga Dost"	Swanand Kirkire	Shantanu Moitra	Shreya Ghoshal	4:46
4.	"Chaar Kadam"	Swanand Kirkire	Shantanu Moitra	Shaan, Shreya Ghoshal	4:20
5.	"Bhagwan Hai Kahan Re Tu"	Swanand Kirkire	Shantanu Moitra	Sonu Nigam	5:12
6.	"Dil Darbadar"	Manoj Muntashir	Ankit Tiwari	Ankit Tiwari	5:31
7.	"PK Dance Theme"		Shantanu Moitra	Instrumental	2:23
Total length:					30:17

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Bollywood Hungama
NDTV
Times of India
Hindustan Times
India Today
Rediff
CNN-IBN

Srijana Mitra Das of The Times of India gave the movie 4 stars out of 5.^[101] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave 3.5 stars to the movie quoting "It's a courageous film that sticks to Hirani's well-oiled formula".^[102] NDTV gave the movie 5 stars calling it "PK is a winner all the way, a film that Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy and Guru Dutt would have been proud of had they been alive. Rajkumar Hirani is without a doubt their most worthy standard-bearer."^[103] Bollywood Hungama described the film "a solid entertainer that will surely entertain the masses and classes alike" and gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars.^[104] Raja Sen of Rediff gave PK 4 out of 5 stars and called it "a triumph" and argued that Aamir "soars high".^[105] However, Sukanya Verma of the same publication called the film "a mixed bag of spunk and sentimentality", while still giving it 3.5 out of 5 stars.^[106] Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and said "Aamir Khan steals the show with his performance".^[107] Rohit Khilnani of India Today gave 4.5 stars, and said "Go watch the film & watch it ASAP!"^[108] Edmund Lee of South China Morning Post gave PK 3.5 stars.^[109]

Activists of pro-Hindu organizations Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal protested against certain scenes in the film, which they considered to be hurtful to the religious sentiments of the Hindu community. Subsequently, some theatres were vandalised by those activists,^{[110][111][112]} who demanded a ban on the movie^[113] and a Public Interest Litigation was filed against the film for the same.^[114][115] Amish Tripathi of Hindustani Times and Madhu Kishwar of Firstpost took issue with the film for mocking idolatry, which they believed in part was intended as criticism of Hinduism, along with other faiths.^[116][117] Government officials, such as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and the then chief minister of Bihar Jitan Ram Manjhi exempted the film from entertainment tax to encourage wider viewership.^[118]

Box office

PK opted to have its box office figures tracked by Rentrak^[119] a United States-based company that specializes in audience measurements. PK has become the first Bollywood film to earn ₹1 billion (US$15 million) nett from online bookings.^[120] PK grossed ₹175 crore (US$26 million) worldwide in its first weekend.^[121] It is the highest-grossing Indian film, in both domestic as well as international markets.^[19] The final worldwide gross of PK was ₹735 crore (US$110 million).^[12]

PK worldwide collections breakdown

Territory	Territory wise Collections break-up
India	Nett Gross: ₹3.37 billion (US$50 million)[122][123][124][125][126][127][128]
	Distributor share: ₹1.65 billion (US$24 million)[129]
	Entertainment tax: ₹1.13 billion (US$17 million)[14][130][131]
International (Outside India)	US$45.64 million(Rs 2.88 billion)[14][19][132][133][134][135]
	US$10,616,104 (United States-Canada)[15]
Worldwide	₹7.35 billion (US$110 million)[12][14][15][19][136]

Domestic

PK earned ₹260 million (US$3.8 million) nett on its opening day.^[137] The film showed growth on its second day, earning around ₹290 million (US$4.3 million) nett.^[138] On its third day, the film brought in ₹370 million (US$5.4 million) nett, bringing its weekend take to ₹925 million (US$14 million) nett.^[139]

PK had the highest collections for a Hindi film on its first Monday, earning around ₹210 million (US$3.1 million) nett.^[140] Over the next two days the film grossed ₹190 million (US$2.8 million) and ₹200 million (US$2.9 million) nett respectively, taking its total to ₹1.53 billion (US$23 million).^[141] On Christmas Day the film earned approximately ₹275 million (US$4.0 million) nett and taking its first week total to ₹1.80 billion (US$26 million) nett.^[142][143]

On its second Friday, PK brought in around ₹140 million (US$2.1 million) nett.^[144] The film kept growing in its second weekend, earning ₹170 million (US$2.5 million) on Saturday and ₹220 million (US$3.2 million) on Sunday, taking the weekend total to ₹533 million (US$7.8 million) nett.^[145] It earned ₹92.5 million (US$1.4 million) on its second Monday, ₹90 million (US$1.3 million) on Tuesday and ₹97.5 million (US$1.4 million) on Wednesday. With this, the film took its total to around ₹2.63 billion (US$39 million) nett and became the highest-grossing film in India in just thirteen days.^[9][146] The film set a record second week figure of ₹945 million (US$14 million), taking its total to ₹2.76 billion (US$41 million) nett.^[131] PK made an all-time record in the Mumbai circuit by grossing there more than ₹1 billion (US$15 million) nett.^[147]

The film netted around ₹275 million (US$4.0 million) in its third weekend, reaching ₹3.05 billion (US$45 million) nett in seventeen days.^[148] The film went on to nett ₹3.19 billion (US$47 million) in India and grossed ₹1.53 billion (US$23 million) overseas for a worldwide gross of ₹5.77 billion (US$85 million) in three weeks.^[125][130] The film earned a final domestic nett of ₹3.37 billion (US$50 million).^[123]

International

The film opened in 22 international markets during its opening weekend (19–21 December) and grossed $28.7 million, placing it at No. 3 at the worldwide box office behind The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and Gone with the Bullets.^[149] In North America, the film set an opening weekend record for an Indian film collecting $3.75 million and placing at No. 10 at the box office.^[149] PK is the first Indian film to gross US$10 million in North America (US and Canada). The international gross of PK is US$45.63 million^{[14][19][132][150]} — currently 1st in the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time in international markets.^{[133][135][151][152]}

In Pakistan, PK had grossed ₨18 crore (US$1.8 million) as of 10 January 2015.^[153][154] PK became an instant hit grossing US$5.14 –$5.3 million in first three days of release due to good word-of-mouth – a record for an Indian film (previously held by Dhoom 3), debuting at second place at the Chinese box office behind Avengers: Age of Ultron.^[155][156] PK became the highest-grossing Indian film in China in just 72 hours^[156][157] and as of 8 July 2015 has grossed US$19.5 million(Rs 122 crore) in China.^{[12][158][159]} It became the first Indian film to pass the 100 million yuan ($16.11 million) threshold, which is considered rare for a non-Hollywood foreign film.^[160]

Records

Box Office Records made by PK

Box office record	Record details	Previous record holder	Ref.
Number of screens (Domestic)	5,200 screens	Dhoom 3 (2013, 4,500 screens)	[161]
Lifetime nett gross (India)	₹3.37 billion (US$50 million)	Dhoom 3 (2013, ₹2.61 billion (US$38 million))	[123][124][162]
Overseas gross	US$45.63 million	Dhoom 3 (2013, US$31 million)	[14][19][163]
Worldwide gross	₹7.35 billion (US$110 million)	Dhoom 3 (2013, ₹5.4 billion (US$79 million))	[12][14][15][162]
Highest gross (North America)	$10,616,104	Dhoom 3 (2013, $8,031,955)	[15][164]
Highest gross (Australia)	A$2,108,655	Dhoom 3 (2013, A$1,752,845)	[165]
Highest gross (New Zealand)	NZ$568,336	Dhoom 3 (2013, NZ$530,911 )	[166]
Highest gross (China)	$19.5 million	Dhoom 3 (2013, $3.17 million)	[156][159][167][168]
Highest gross in a single territory outside India	$19.5 million (China)		[159][168]

Awards

PK received two Awards out of eight Nominations at the 60th Filmfare Awards.^[169] The film won five Star Guild Awards,^[170][171] and two Life OK Screen Awards.^[172]

See also

• List of highest-grossing Indian films – other high-grossing films
• Starman - a 1984 film of an alien who arrives and questions the customs

References

External links

• PK at the Internet Movie Database
• PK at Bollywood Hungama
• PK at Box Office Mojo
• PK at Rotten Tomatoes
• Official trailer

Rajkumar Hirani Directorial works Munna Bhai MBBS (2003) Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) 3 Idiots (2009) PK (2014) Productions Saala Khadoos (2016)

Vidhu Vinod Chopra films Directed Murder at Monkey Hill (1976) An Encounter with Faces (1978) Sazaye Maut (1981) Khamosh (1985) Parinda (1989) 1942: A Love Story (1994) Kareeb (1998) Mission Kashmir (2000) Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007) Broken Horses (2015) Produced Khamosh (1985) Parinda (1989) 1942: A Love Story (1994) Kareeb (1998) Mission Kashmir (2000) Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003) Parineeta (2005) Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) 3 Idiots (2009) Ferrari Ki Sawaari (2012) PK (2014) Wazir (2015)